The computing industry has seen many advances in recent years, and such advances have produced a multitude of products and services. Computing systems have also seen many changes, including their virtualization. Virtualization of computer resources generally connotes the abstraction of computer hardware, which essentially separates operating systems and applications from direct correlation to specific hardware. Hardware is therefore abstracted to enable multiple operating systems and applications to access parts of the hardware, defining a seamless virtual machine. The result of virtualization is that hardware is more efficiently utilized and leveraged.
The advent of virtualization has sparked a number of technologies, which allow companies to optimize the utilization of their systems. As a company's enterprise systems are usually installed at various geographic locations, networking protocols are used to interconnect the various systems, which can then be virtualized into one or more virtual servers.
With the recent proliferation of virtual systems and servers, proper deployment practices have become increasingly important. Although vitalizing individual systems has become increasingly simplified with the use of special software programs and tools, this simplification has introduced laborious complexities set-up and configuration of grouped computer systems, enterprise systems, and the like. These complexities arise primarily based on the need to keep system interrelationships intact after virtualization of tens, hundreds or thousands of computers. As managed group systems depend on the processes and/or data produced or generated by other systems of the group, conventional virtualization schemes that virtualize one computer system at a time tends to be time consuming, and prone to errors. Although it is envisioned that care can be taken to account for the interrelationships between the managed systems of a group, these relationships sometimes are dependent on multiple conditions. Unfortunately, the conventional manner of virtualization currently requires virtualization of one computer at a time.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for methods, systems and computer implemented processes that enable automated virtualization processes for groups of computers, while ensuring that existing interrelationships are maintained or updated.